Obduction Exploration Guide: Difference between revisions

You find yourself in what might be a familiar wooded area by a lake. This is Earth, and as you wander around you’ll realize that this is just one place that people have been taken from. There are signs and picnic tables and a camp fire… oh, and some kind of crazy light that shoots out of the sky and seems to get closer as you explore around.

To the right of Farley’s house is a strange graveyard, but beyond that is a strange border or edge. Seems like you could walk right out into that crazy alien landscape… worth a try.

Now you’re getting somewhere. Downtown Hunrath, with people everywhere… or maybe not. As you tour this metropolis, make sure you catch one of the highlights…

Beyond the compound and the windmill and garden is a lovely little river area. And the river flows under some kind of crazy rigged-together structure. And the power lines run to the other side… just saying.

Welcome to Hunrath — some kind of kludgy home for abductees. Hunrath appears to have been a functional community that has recently been evacuated for some kind of battle — with the Mofang — whoever that is. Mayor Josef’s kiosk messages seem a bit weird — like he takes his position a bit too seriously, maybe. And the imagers themselves are a strange conglomeration of old earth technology melded with some advanced alien stuff.

Caroline Farley seems interesting. She has a nice house, but it’s locked up tight. And she’s managed to leave you a snippet of a warning about the battle — and not trusting people. It was her voice during the intro in the forest by the lake.

The old Hartnell mining town was scooped out of Arizona one night, with the town, the people, and the mining equipment — including the rails. And a graveyard came along as well, and it appears to have been used and reused; this place has been here for a while.

 

And beyond the crazy desert landscape lies a bizarre, purplish, alien landscape. But you can’t seem to get there right now. And there’s a giant tree in the center of everything that is the lifeblood of this place.

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Do you know what your goal is? Perhaps you forgot what the guy behind the door wanted you to do. Go check with him again.|Power and power lines. Seems like the key to that is beyond that strange gate on the river.|That strange gate is the key. The corrugated metal panels can be moved down into the water. Would they catch any current?|That gate can be moved — it rotates around the central pivot point. And the force of flowing water can make that happen.}}

In case you failed to notice, Hunrath seems to have been split down the middle by an old wall that bisects this giant sphere. It was built long ago as a way to protect and divide Hunrath. Check out the map on the electrical box for a rough layout.

After passing through a peaceful cottonwood bosque along the river, this back side of Hunrath seems more like the business or warehouse side. There are pieces of a scrapyard, a gas station, a railroad yard, and giant stone sphere. And handily, someone has gone through a lot of trouble to string electricity to various locations.

This whole place is such an odd juxtaposition of technology and history. Items seem to have come from all over earth — with some odd alien stuff thrown in for good measure.

Are you sure? Have you thought about your goal, and connecting things to make that happen? Okay, okay…

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Remember your goal? Come on! That guy behind the door? Go check with him again.|Power, power lines, connections. Follow the power lines — they converge, and an electrical cord snakes along the ground. You should follow that line.|So that diesel locomotive has a big generator in it. That seems like a good place to get power from. You should get that thing started.|Electrical power from a diesel locomotive — you’re going to have to pump some fuel to it, prime it, and start it. How hard can that be? Complicated?}}

Looks like the guy behind the vault door is C.W. He was waiting for people to return, but they never showed up. This entire area within the fence is his compound. He’s evidently pretty handy — seems to have had a large part in putting together much of the technology that you see here. He built the crazy kiosks — hacking the red-beam Mofang technology to project moving or still images, and to aim upward to disable the wall of the dome.

C.W. has also rigged up some blue-beam Villein technology to an old mine cart. It’s a disabling beam of sorts — it disables Mofang technology. It’s interesting that he set it up to aim right at the opening into his compound.

C.W. and Farley seem to have gotten along just fine, although she’s not as comfortable as the mayor about recording imager messages. Farley was curious about why the Sorians would be giving them the imager technology — is that pertinent?

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Your goal! Something about the red beam and the wall of this place. Just saying. You could have checked with C.W., but we just saved you the trouble. You're welcome.|The goal is to get through the wall of this place - the edge between this place and the alien landscape. The key seems to be the red beam. What might disable that red beam?|Disabling that red beam is exactly what you want to do. The key to disabling the red beam was something you read about and even possibly experimented with in the workshop. Think blue.|Alright, here’s the deal. The red beam is based on alien technology that can be disabled with the blue beam. You should be able to use that blue beam that’s mounted on the mine cart. But you’re going to have to figure out how that crazy mine cart works.}}

If you haven’t gotten through the wall of this place, then go back to the previous section. If you have… maybe not what you expected, huh? Now before we move on, spend some time thinking about what happened when you walked through the wall/dome. Really . . . think about it! There is a method to what is happening, and it will be very helpful to understand it.

As you pass through the dome, you don’t go through to the alien landscape. Instead, you end up in another section within the dome. Try it a few times, just to get your bearings and figure out what leads to where… and why. This is going to open up a few new areas . . .

Whatever this dome is, it’s not meant to let you outside. The landscape outside is worth examining, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get there. But it does look like the human inhabitants of this world have made use of the odd properties of the dome to make some short cuts here and there.

Access to the junkyard was protected by rocks, but getting past those and using this backdoor dome access gets us there. It looks like this is where all the stuff from new arrivers ends up being carried, sorted, and stored. Some of the pieces and parts make it down into the junkyard behind the gas station.

Getting through the dome is critical to opening up new areas and getting power distributed. If you’re feeling like you need some suggestions on what do to after the dome is breached, then proceed…

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Getting through the dome opens up new areas — you want to get inside the fence of the junk yard.|Getting inside the junk yard fence requires getting to the scrapyard area above the junkyard. The dome is the key to the scrapyard.|There is a backdoor through the dome that leads to the scrapyard. The shimmering rocks block the way.|There is a tunnel near where you first started that’s blocked by shimmering rocks. If you drive the mine cart, you can use it to get rid of the shimmering rocks. Go through the tunnel, the dome, the scrapyard, and the junkyard, and get more power on.}}

Well hopefully you’ve learned some stuff at Farley’s… but now you need to make use of the information. In case you didn’t realize it yet, Hunrath has a big rock and stone wall that runs right down the middle of it. You can (and should) figure out a way to get onto that wall. The top of the wall leads to some interesting new areas of Hunrath and to the lower tower. (You will probably pass some strange looking machines — sphere-shaped contraptions on pedestals. If you activate and use them, you’ll need to go to other sections of this guide.)

The top of the wall will lead you to a locked door into the tower that you should be able to open with information you gleaned at Farley’s. Inside the tower you’ll find the mayor’s office. Look around for information… one key piece is on the mayors desk — but you’ll have to decipher it. Oh, and unlock any doors from the inside — that’ll make getting around Hunrath so much easier.

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|You’ve explored almost everything except for a couple key interiors. Figure out how to get into Farley’s house, and into the large tower. That will lead to the tree.|It’s all about codes and keypads. A note gives the code for Farley’s, and inside Farley’s is the key to the tower office, and inside the tower office . . . rinse, repeat.|The note with a clue to Farley’s code is in C.W. workshop. Inside Farley’s is a projector that reveals a clue and a location for the tower office door. The clue may require some alien calculations. Inside the tower office is a reference to how to get the code to the elevator, which you will access on top of the wall, from the other side.|Assuming you found your way into Farley’s, the projector displays “15” or “IS”, but it’s really a symbol to be entered into the alien device in the garage — which will give you a number — the code to the tower office door. On the desk in the tower office is a reference to “direction” — which refers to the compass, which refers to a State in the United States, which refers to a license plate in the garage, which (when you translate letters to numbers using a phone) will give you the code to the elevator.}}

{{ExplorationGuideStoryBits|down-the-rabbt-hole|<p>These Trees have an interesting history. Each of the worlds has a tree at its center that began growing when the world itself was taken. The trees go through various cycles as they mature, providing meetings and interactions for the various species along the way.</p>

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|All trees need water. Start there.|The water down here seems to have been pumped out — not good for tree health.|Hmmm. What might be a great place to store water in Hunrath?|Find your way to the water tower in Hunrath (through C.W.’s workshop). Open that valve, then open the valve in each “heart” beneath the Trees. This will start restoring the Tree health, AND open the portals between worlds.}}

Don’t look down — oh, well go ahead. Enjoy the path along the edge, and don’t forget to stop and smell the… uh… lichen?

<p>But through all of that, the Arai existed and survived. They were the original inhabitants and the sole survivors. Their manifestations are interesting… starting with a barnacle-like gestational stage, progressing to a flying crustacean-like stage, and for a chosen few a morphological change to a more human-esque polyarch. The polyarchs are the brains, and the flying creatures are the pawns.</p>

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Maybe there is some kind of device you could use to disable that red beam.|Maybe you could use the same blue beam device you used in Hunrath.|You should think about how the crazy seed machines work. They move chunks from one world to another world. Sure would be useful to have a chunk of Hunrath with that blue beam rail car moved right here to Kaptar.|The seed machines swap chunks between worlds. Go to Hunrath and drive the blue beam rail car to this chunk, then swap it back here and disable the red beam.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|I hear wind blowing in this cavern - it might be enough to power things.|Get this huge piece of equipment powered and sending.|There is a pinion gear, a crank, and a clutch - it’s all about the order. If the crankshaft is spinning you’ll need to find another control for transmission of that power.|The lower pinion first, which lets you crank the valve to start the huge wind blades. Once those are spinning go up the stairs a bit and engage the clutch. Now back up to the (now open) transmission control device. Point it at each of the four catch-points and engage them.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Take a long look at the map painted in the wooden shack near where the red beam was.|There is more than one way to get somewhere in these worlds, the direct way, and the back door.|Maybe riding those chains means getting in on the other side. There’s a spot near where you swapped into this world that might work.|Go back to the rotating bridge where you started in this world. There’s a large metal beam that you must release to rotate the bridge to a new position. Now you can get through the dome and to the other side.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Lots of paths. Just explore well.|A path is opened by a hook that was blocking your way.|The path is open under the chain-cart, but the path isn’t direct. Once you find your way into the temple you’ll eventually want to find the path behind and though the dome.|There’s a hidden path that leads off the plateau and under the chain-cart. It’s open now that you’ve ridden the cart over. Once through you can go to the left, through the dome, and start climbing the west pinnacle. (Use the two seed-swap devices that you stumble on.) At the top is another chain-cart. Taking this one brings you to the upper section of the crankshaft cavern. There’s a handle on the catwalk that lowers the stairs and allows for a nice shortcut. Then take the elevator down.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|The large spherical room is the key.|Rotating the section of the sphere gives access to all the paths.|There may be some paths from the sphere that aren’t immediately obvious.|There are the obvious upper path doors that you can see, and there is an extra lower path door. Then to get to the Tree, you must disengage the shaft that is turning the gear by the Tree.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|There’s not a bridge here. Maybe there’s one somewhere else.|There’s a natural stone bridge in Hunrath… hmmmm.|Swap. Walk. Swap. Cross.|Use the seed-swap device next to the canyon to swap to Hunrath. Then backtrack in Hunrath to the seed-swap device you used to get here to Maray. Swap back and you’ll see that you’ve got a bridge in place.}}

Well, you’ve disabled the red beam, and you know what that means — hopefully you know what that means. Sooo… make your way along the lovely paths of Maray — it’s quite beautiful here. The paths weave around quite a bit — find your way to another Villein structure where you’ll be required to deal with some interesting Villein control panels.

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Explore the various paths: in the jungle and on the control panels.|There’s a slightly hidden path. You’ll find it. The control panels are a bit more complicated, but experimenting with them will give you good feedback.|The control panels are made up of the blobs that you can connect and disconnect by dragging, and enter by pushing the large button on top. Make a Villein bridge.|If you need more help with the control panel try looking at the worksheet you found in the garage - or even playing with the device in the garage. You can experiment and get through. You can make a bridge by connecting a bunch of blobs. Beyond that — here’s a tidbit of technical info: the control panels are made up of five separate digits, and each digit represents a number from 0 to 3.}}

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Swap, Spin, Spin, Swap, Spin, Swap…}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|While going through the swaps of the Gauntlet, keep this in mind - what’s on the other side of this swap?|Make sure you know what’s on each side of each swap, and be open to the possibility of a little backtracking.|You’re swapping to make clear paths at first. But then you’ll be looking for a way to build a bridge.|Swap, swap, move, swap, rotate, swap, rotate, move, swap, backtrack, swap… wait… uh… move then backtrack… or is it swap then swap… never mind. There’s a lot of swapping, rotating, moving, with a bit of backtracking. Once you get the idea, things should fall into place. Sorry, this one is on you. Good luck!}}

Congratulations! You made it past some of the hard stuff. Now you’ve got a little ride to take and some final exploring to do before getting to the tree in this world… if you make it.

<p>A Mofang arrived here, with a massive weapon meant to destroy this place. The Villein were ready for it, but they weren’t ready to see Josef arrive. The masquerade bought the Mofang just enough time to shoot one of the Villein guards, but a second Villein guard, Trar, forced the Mofang away from his bomb. A standoff ensued… until you arrived.</p>

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|Look for somebody with something to say.|The Villein has a number for you. Figure out what to do with it.|That number is meant to give you some information. Look around where the Villein is and see what it might refer to.|The number refers to a pod in the storage facility. Use what you know about the Villein numbers and the control panels and find the right pod. Then you can proceed to use the blue beam on some dangerous stuff ahead.}}

If the seed-swap device is something that C.W. was prepared to use, it would make sense that it would be located in Hunrath. You’ll need a combination of things to get to this place… including a door unlocked from the inside and some imager rocks removed. Hopefully you’ve opened the door from the inside earlier. Then when you’ve removed the right rocks, you’ll know where to go.

This room is where C.W. waited… and waited. He was ready to do his duty if the battle came to him. But it didn’t. So, after days of waiting, and not understanding what might have happened, he left the war room and headed for his vault to think about his options. Now what’s left here is the device C.W. would have used to swap, and you can use it to get to Soria.

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|There are imager rocks blocking the entry, and they’ll need to be removed.|The other side of the river seems like a spot that you may not have explored.|You can see the rocks from two places — from across the river, and from above the river. And a door needs unlocking from the inside.|The imager rocks are across the river, and you can remove them from above with the mine cart. Getting there requires an unlocked door from the Gauntlet, and then a swing of the swing-bridge to a new direction.}}

 

{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|There doesn’t seem to be a “front door” to the Bleeder.|The “back door” to the Bleeder has been blocked — until now.|C.W.’s work with moving and constructing the panels may changed things.|The panels that C.W. used to build the structure over the Tree were stored upstairs on the tracks in his workshop. Now that they’re gone, it might be worth a look.}}